I began writing the book in the summer of 2016 and completed the manuscript roughly six years later. I wish I could say that I was very organized in my process, but that would not be true.
The original source of my family history came from my grandmother's bible. It contained dates and locations for; births, marriages, and deaths of family members. Another invaluable resource was boxes and albums of old family photographs. In addition, I used ancestry.com, google, and Wikipedia to fill in some of the blanks. I then got busy writing the story.
About a year into the project, I met a published author who introduced me to my area's California Writer's Club. She also invited me to join a group of authors who met weekly. Their mission was to provide advice, counsel, and accountability for one another. Being a member of these groups was exactly what I needed to learn more about the craft of writing. I learned how to organize my book at a high level, using an outline format to examine and improve the flow of the story.
Over the years, I shared my process with the other writers in our weekly group. I also consulted my lifelong friend Steve Ladd for help researching and fact-checking dates and events that I remembered or that were part of our family folklore.
When the manuscript was nearly complete, I hired a fellow author from our weekly group to edit the manuscript. She was invaluable. As she reviewed each chapter, she offered additional advice on the craft of writing, using active vs. passive voice, details regarding punctuation and paragraph usage with dialogue, and much more.
Though writing is primarily a solo effort, I feel blessed to have had the support and expertise of other authors in my debut effort.
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